Nokia’s Rally Accelerates as Seven Analysts Upgrade on AI Infrastructure Promise

Seven prominent analysts raised ratings, citing Nokia's optical and IP networks as key AI beneficiaries. Q1 sales up 4%, AI revenue up 49%.

A rare wave of institutional conviction has swept across Nokia stock, with seven prominent analysts raising ratings or price targets within days. CFRA, Argus, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Arete and Nordea all moved in quick succession — a concentrated vote of confidence that has helped push shares to their highest level in more than 15 years. The consensus view: Nokia is no longer a legacy telecom equipment maker but a direct beneficiary of the artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout.

The stock has surged 139% since the start of the year and gained nearly 47% in the past 30 days alone. On May 22, Helsinki-listed shares jumped 9.55% to €13.26, while the U.S.-listed ADR climbed over 9% to roughly $15.47. The closing price of €13.30 marked a fresh 52-week high. Behind the price action lies a fundamental reassessment of the company’s business mix, driven by concrete operational improvements and a string of strategic milestones.

Morgan Stanley lifted its target to €14 and reiterated Nokia as a top pick, arguing the company holds a unique position to capture AI-driven data center spending. CFRA upgraded from “Hold” to “Buy” and more than doubled its price target to $16, reclassifying Nokia alongside optical-networking and AI-infrastructure peers rather than as a traditional telecom supplier. Argus followed with a “Buy” and a $15 target, while JPMorgan moved to “Overweight.” The common thread: Nokia’s optical and IP networks business is seen as a prime beneficiary of the surge in AI-related capital expenditure.

The analysts’ enthusiasm has a solid foundation in the numbers. In the first quarter of 2026, Nokia booked net sales of €4.5 billion, up 4% on a currency-adjusted basis. Comparable gross margin expanded 320 basis points to 45.5%, and operating profit jumped 54% to €281 million — comfortably above the consensus estimate of €250 million. AI and cloud revenue alone grew 49%, and Nokia secured roughly €1 billion in new AI-related orders. The company raised its growth forecast for Optical and IP Networks to 18-20% from a previous 10-12%, a revision widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the re-rating.

Management provided further encouragement for the current quarter. CEO Justin Hotard said revenue in the second quarter is expected to rise 5-9% sequentially, while operating profit should land “slightly above” the midpoint of the full-year guidance range of €2.0 billion to €2.5 billion. The next major checkpoint comes on July 23, when Nokia reports second-quarter and first-half results — a date that will test whether the momentum in AI order intake is sustainable.

Two additional catalysts have reinforced the bullish narrative. On May 21, Nokia opened an AI networking lab in Sunnyvale, California, partnering with AMD, Keysight, Lenovo and Supermicro to develop networking hardware optimized for AI data centers. Regulators also delivered a tailwind: the U.S. Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval for Nokia’s Beacons and ONT devices, clearing them from the Covered List of restricted foreign consumer routers. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security concluded the products pose no national security risk. In a further sign of commitment to the U.S. market, Nokia pledged to manufacture its next-generation WLAN-8 gateways domestically.

On the legal and corporate front, Nokia scored a decisive victory in the UK Court of Appeal in mid-May, permanently blocking patent infringement lawsuits from Acer and Asus over video-coding patents. The company also moved to streamline its portfolio, taking an approximately 11% stake in Inseego as part of a deal that sharpens its focus on AI infrastructure. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is not financially material for Nokia. Meanwhile, the appointment of Emma Falck — formerly of Siemens — as president of the Mobile Infrastructure division, effective September 1, 2026, signals continuity in the ongoing transformation toward AI-centric networking.

With a net cash position of €3.8 billion and a valuation that now reflects a strategic premium as one of the few Western providers of critical network infrastructure, Nokia appears to have left its telecom-commodity days behind. Whether the stock can sustain its meteoric rise will depend on the delivery of those AI orders and the margin expansion promised by the new business mix — a test that begins in July.